Mechanical fix might not solve Toyota’s accelerating PR problem

February 3, 2010

On Monday Toyota Motor Corp. announced a solution to the problem of gas pedals sticking on several of its models, but as the Los Angeles Times reports, the Japanese automaker must still convince a skeptical public that its latest fix will prevent vehicles from accelerating out of control. A top U.S. executive for Toyota appeared on NBC’s “Today” show and other venues to describe the company’s plans to insert steel shims into the pedal assemblies of millions of its recalled vehicles.

But since the automaker reportedly first detected a problem with sticking gas pedals nearly three years ago, Toyota is having a hard time explaining why it didn’t address the problem sooner, the newspaper reports. If the company knew about these problems for a long time, “it’s going to be really bad news for them,” said Christine Pearson, who teaches crisis management at the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Until recently, Toyota executives insisted that thousands of complaints about sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus models were caused by faulty floor mats, which are subject to a previously announced recall. But last month the company said it had also found a problem with sticking pedals made by an Indiana supplier, prompting the recall of 2.3 million vehicles. The pedal maker, CTS Corp., fired back late last week, reportedly saying that Toyota had started receiving complaints of sudden acceleration problems long before it became a customer of CTS, and that Toyota designs the parts its suppliers make.  — Greg Beaubien

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